Beaver Dam Gets A Break

October 24, 1985|By Andrew Bagnato.

The Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts is embroiled in a legal conflict. It has decided that beavers are incompatible with a man-made lake in Oak Brook, but neighbors of the institute are siding with the toothy rodent.

Beavers don`t have lawyers to protect them from eviction, so the institute`s neighbors, Ralph and Margaret Thompson, got one and on Wednesday won a temporary restraining order to prevent the institute, an evangelical group, from tearing down a beaver dam on Lake Breakenridge.

The institute, near Ogden Avenue and Ill. Hwy. 83, owns most of the land around Lake Breakenridge, but Du Page County Circuit Judge Robert McLaren ruled Wednesday that man-made or not, the lake is covered by a section of the state wildlife code that outlaws the destruction of dens, nests, houses or feed beds of muskrats or beavers.

``It`s been a continuing action on the part of the institute to lower the water level,`` said Aldo Botti, an Oak Brook lawyer the Thompsons hired.

``When they do this, they interfere with the wildlife and with my clients`

enjoyment of their property.``

In asking for the restraining order, the Thompsons, whose property abuts Lake Breakenridge, near the border of Hinsdale and Oak Brook, charged that institute workers have assaulted the dam of trees and shrubs with a backhoe.

John DeBoer, the institute`s executive vice president, said the organization wants to clear the dam so water can flow from the 5-foot-deep lake to a nearby creek. ``It`s destroying our property there,`` DeBoer said of the dam, which has existed in various stages of construction since the spring of 1983.

Officer Kevin Stover of the state Department of Conservation said beavers shouldn`t be blamed for going about their business. ``The problems aren`t usually caused by the beavers but by the property owners who go in and build around the water,`` he said. ``The beavers are just doing what is natural. The subdivisions and the developments encroach on the wildlife.``

Court documents say the Thompsons are concerned about the well-being of the beavers and the four acres of lakefront property the couple have owned since 1948. When the dam is cleared, the lake drops more than a foot, and the edge of the water recedes about 30 feet. An area once covered by water is overgrown by algae and weeds, according to the motion.

And while the lake recedes from the Thompsons` property, the fate of ``at least two Castor Canadensis,`` commonly referred to as beaver, remains doubtful, the motion states.

The Thompsons` case argues that they ``have an absolute right to have Lake Breakenridge maintained in its natural state.``

The body of water`s natural state ``is a retention pond,`` DeBoer said of Lake Breakenridge. ``It`s not a lake.`` He said a concrete channel blocked by the dam was designed to let water flow to a nearby stream.

The institute, a multimillion-dollar nonprofit corporation founded in 1965 by Bill Gothard, a graduate of Wheaton College, who once worked to reform Chicago teenage gang members, owns about 200 acres in Oak Brook. The institute did not contest the motion Wednesday, but DeBoer said a lawyer would represent the organization at further hearings.

Botti said he planned to file suit to recover about $100,000 in damages and attorneys` fees. The dam dispute ``may not sound like a big deal,`` the lawyer said. ``But it gets expensive when you get attorneys involved.``